Brooding
by Laryna6
Summary: Hyoubu Kyousuke/Andy Hinomiya AU, ABO. In hindsight, Hyoubu Kyousuke collecting children for his organization was a lot less sinister. Beta males were notorious for being the least caring parents, but of course a childless omega was going to adopt.
1. Chapter 1

_For anyone who doesn't know ZKC: espers are a minority of the human race and their powers are measured on a scale like the earthquake scale because the most powerful are natural disasters. There's a lot of prejudice against them, but governments want to control them, use them as trump cards in wars but also do inhumane experiments on them etc. Zettai Karen Children focuses on three children used to do missions for the Japanese government and their caretaker._

_Hyoubu Kyousuke is a WWII vet from the first esper unit who was shot by his commanding officer because of a prediction (cough self-fulfilling prophecy cough) he'd lead espers in a war against normals. He survived because he's a healer (his PK lets him affect matter on the molecular level, which is utterly broken) and to this day he looks like a silver-haired teenager and mostly acts like one too because trauma. He leads the esper organization PANDRA - as Nemi pointed out 'basically Magneto' - and sees all its members as his adopted kids. He is trying to get one of the main characters of ZKC to join him because there's a prophecy she'll lead a war against normals and be shot by her caretaker/father figure who she's in love with and he doesn't want her to go through what happened to him - she's not a healer. _

_The Unlimited (up on Crunchyroll) is a spin-off focused on Hyoubu and PANDRA, with a couple new characters who were later made manga canon. I had read the manga before watching it, but that's not required to enjoy it (and I read the manga years ago, so there are hundreds of chapters I hadn't read yet that I'm slowly making my way through)._

* * *

Warmth, wrapped in his arms. Not a body pillow, it was _warm_. He moaned softly at the sensation and nosed at soft skin as hair tickled his face. Breathing in again, the taste of the air made him crave more of it, and more, to slide his already hardened cock against firm mounds and wow, this was better than any dream he'd ever had.

Then the memory of the first time he'd smelled that scent hit him and he scrambled back.

He'd caught a whiff in the air and then wanted closer, and she'd cried out, clutching her head, and when he froze instead of backing away like he normally would, he didn't _like _hurting people even if he hated espers, exposure to his power made her throw up, ruining that scent.

"Finally awake?" an affectionately teasing voice asked him as Andy braced himself with a hand on the piled clothes that could only be a _nest_, he was in an _omega's nest_, and he looked up to see Hyoubu Kyousuke.

The leader of PANDRA with a still-raw mating bite where his neck met his shoulder.

Hyoubu guessed where he was looking and reached up to touch it. He smiled, stroking it.

Andy had, had been with an omega. He'd never been with _anyone _before, normal didn't want espers, the odds were higher of having an esper kid with an esper, and espers couldn't be near him without being in pain. Not that Hyoubu looked like he was in pain, snuggling back down into the nest.

Hyoubu Kyousuke was an _omega? _But his file said he was a beta! He was like eighty, twenty-five was old for presentation, eighty was just… But Hyoubu Kyousuke could control his body with his ESP.

"Come here?" Hyoubu asked him, reaching out an arm, and Andy couldn't stop himself from pouncing. From nosing into that neck again, pressing against the bite and the scent gland. A deep rumbling escaped him. He couldn't remember ever purring before in his life. Hyoubu's arms wrapped around him and he couldn't remember anyone _holding _him before – they must have when he was a baby, but then he got tested and, and then the only time anyone ever _touched _him was when the other esper kids attacked him for getting too close. It didn't take a genius to figure out that was why he loved to fight.

"You're not pulling away," he said, quietly, feeling a little like the world had gone mad. Feeling like he was the dumbest idiot alive, why was he looking a gift horse in the mouth?

Even cranked up the ECM hadn't really affected Hyoubu, but in the punishment cells overnight, Andy had been nervous about having Hyoubu in proximity to him like that, likely to figure out his power, and he knew his range went up when he was stressed. Shit, had he fucked up whatever the leader of PANDRA was doing to keep from presenting? Shit, the instant his heat was over and his head cleared Hyoubu Kyousuke was going to _murder _him.

Well, in that case he'd already failed the mission and he might as well die happy.

"Do you know I'm the only level seven telekinetic to have survived to adulthood without a limiter?" Hyoubu mused as he shifted to fit a little better in Andy's arms and he was, shit, he was _petting _Andy, stroking a hand down his spine. Andy's rumbling purr only deepened. "I survived because I was instinctively repairing the damage every time a fluctuation smashed some of my internal organs. The practice instantly repairing even brain damage came in handy later… Having my power dampened is relaxing. I hadn't realized I was always slightly on edge, waiting for it to injure me, even after crafting a limiter that could control it decades ago. But you're a level seven, so almost any other esper would feel their power severed rather than dampened."

"I'm a level seven?" Seriously?

"Of course they wouldn't tell you. They wouldn't want you to think you were _special_." Bitterness and contempt – then Hyoubu sighed. "Rejected by normals because of how you were born, rejected by espers because you were hurting them, and it would have been so easy for the normals to fix it. I don't want to let you go just yet," he said, snuggling against Andy, "but whenever we separate I'll make you a limiter."

"You can make them?"

"I made mine. For a level seven it'll take iridium and analysis of your personal wavelength, but there's a supply on board to make limiters for the children, and I'd say I've become _familiar _with the feel of your power over the last couple of days." There was a light air, sort of teasing, to the major's voice, but for some reason Andy didn't hear it as malice. Not when this was his _bonded omega's _voice.

He'd never thought he'd have an omega. He'd never thought he'd have _anyone_. Now he had someone tangled around him, someone who let out a happy little sigh when Andy squeezed him.

It was all going to end in murder, but that was a good thing, actually. It meant he wouldn't have to live without this. Wouldn't have to go back to no one touching him except out of hatred or because they _had _to, for training.

"Now that I have a nest I can't wait to put my children in it," Hyoubu said happily. "And you'll need a limiter for that."

Wait, while they were… Omegas didn't have their kids in their nests while they were actually in heat. Andy sniffed the air and he couldn't really be sure, he'd never dared get close enough to get a good sniff, but while the residue of heat hung in the air… Hyoubu smelled _pregnant._

Andy kissed his ass goodbye. It hadn't been very good while it lasted, up until this bit. "Has it been that long?" he asked dazedly. He remembered following Hyoubu onto the boat, the three espers and one flying squirrel who swarmed the major demanding to know who had done this to him, had the bastards managed to experiment on him?

Hyoubu waved off their concern, saying that something delayed had finally come to pass, and to excuse him, he was going to enjoy it… but that had to be the heat talking. And making him lead Andy to his room. Where Andy had stared while Hyoubu went into a walk-in closet and started pulling out storage boxes full of suits and silk shirts and tossing the contents on the bed.

"Ah. My powers weren't nullified, just reduced… and I really wanted your children." And Major Hyoubu Kyousuke was a teleporter and microkinetic. He could have manually combined sperm and egg… if PK counted as 'manually.'

Andy's hand was pulled to lie over Hyoubu's abdomen. "Three of them," Hyoubu said smugly, then sighed. "More would be impractical."

He wouldn't think that was a pity after he murdered Andy. And smashed the… they probably weren't even fetuses yet.

Andy had never even imagined having children, and now there were three that he wasn't going to have. "I don't have a right to ask you not to get rid of them," he said, and clung to Hyoubu tighter.

"Why would I? I love children. The children of two level sevens should be espers… yes, they have the genes. And it wouldn't have been much effort to insert them at this stage, there aren't that many cells yet."

He'd rescued Yugiri, so… maybe he might keep the… Andy was already thinking of them as children.

"My powers are the greatest danger to them. If I can avoid Unlimited Mode…" Now Hyoubu was clinging to Andy, an omega wanting reassurance from his alpha. "I have to protect the children I already have." He _had _to, from the edge of desperation in his voice, he _loved _them, and knowing that Hyoubu Kyousuke was an omega instead of a beta PANDRA recruiting kids made an entirely different kind of sense. It wasn't recruitment, it was _nesting. _Beta males were infamously bad or indifferent parents, they didn't have an alpha's protectiveness or an omega's nurturing instincts – beta females were at least nurturers, because they _could _bear children, even if it wasn't a good idea for them to – high odds of it killing them.

Of _course _a childless omega was going to adopt.

Andy wanted to reassure him, wanted to promise that they'd protect Kyousuke's children together, because that was what an alpha was for. If he could be of some use, then he might be allowed to have this, this closeness, this sense of family, this _touch _that sent warm contentment surging through him and made him want to cry at the _relief _it was, a desperate hunger sated. "I won't put them in danger," was all he could promise, wracked with guilt. "When you kill me, there's a biochip implanted over my eye. It's a tracker and I don't know what other stuff it does."

Hyoubu pressed him down now, climbing on top of his body protectively and touching his forehead. "There might be an anti-tampering mechanism, I don't want to try to remove it with my powers suppressed. This makes making you a limiter more urgent." He patted Andy's cheek reassuringly. "Why don't you take a shower and take care of that?" he glanced down at Andy's morning wood, looking appreciative for a moment, then sighed with the air of someone who had to deny themselves a treat because duty called. "It shouldn't take me long."

Andy backed away from him and then scrambled out of the nest. He felt relief more than actual rejection at being told to go away – yes, that was how the world worked. He was _never _allowed that close to people.

Once the shower was on he touched himself and recalled the way his knot felt in Hyoubu, the major shuddering as pleasure wracked his young-looking body, letting out the most delicate little _whimpers_ at how overwhelmed he was that left Andy clutching at him to soothe him and then Hyoubu pulled him _closer, deeper_ when everyone else had always pushed him away…

He came embarrassingly quickly and read the labels on the back of the expensive shampoo and conditioner out of embarrassment at the thought of Hyoubu knowing somehow. No, not 'somehow' - he was a psychometer, and if Andy wore a limiter then esper abilities would work on him. And he didn't have any esper abilities that were actually good for defending himself.

He was a dead, dead man.

A craving arose in him, fierce and strong and he shook with it for a moment before mustering his resolve and hurrying to get himself clean so at least he'd be a dignified corpse. He wanted to touch Hyoubu again before he died. The longer he took, the more time for Hyoubu's head to clear, especially with Andy's alpha pheromones absent. He should do the right thing, not impose on someone who didn't really want him, someone he'd slept with under false pretenses, but Hyoubu was so _warm… _

When he came back into the bedroom, rushing to towel-dry his hair, Hyoubu had a necklace around his neck with the number 7 pin he'd worn on his school uniform on it, and was holding another out towards Andy.

Andy wrapped his towel around his hips and stepped forward to the edge of the bed to take it.

Hyoubu shook his head and instead knelt and leaned up to clasp it around Andy's neck. His hands stayed there afterwards, gently rubbing at the back of his neck and his scent glands.

The biochip appeared in front of Andy's face and he blinked and leaned back a bit as it was disintegrated before his eyes.

"Damn USEI… did they think we wouldn't give you a limiter? Even a level two psychometer would detect something like this."

"I didn't think limiters worked on me." No one had ever seriously discussed it with him?

"Why would the normals want to turn off an ECM just to allow a child to make _friends_," Hyoubu said disgustedly, and then he was pulling Andy close, pulling him up into the nest.

Andy let him, let Hyoubu entangle their legs together and drew a deep breath, relishing the closeness. He was going to die happy, he reminded himself, pressing his forehead against Hyoubu's chest. "You know I work for the USEI."

"Not legally you don't. The USEI's congressional oversight would pitch a fit at allowing a level 7 strategic asset like you out of the country unsupervised. Much less putting you into _my _hands. Their old man would have had you transferred into the Secret Service in a heartbeat – ECCM won't help against your power. Most likely one of the anti-esper _normal _factions that infest the organization sent you here so that you would die rather than risking the rest of the USEI discovering you and assigning an esper next to the President. If you wanted to work for normals after what they allowed you to go through, any head of state on the planet would pay a king's ransom for your bodyguard services. Risking you as a field agent was a treasonous waste."

Andy blinked and stared up at the man. That was very well thought out for an omega who should have just come out of heat. "You knew all along?"

Hyoubu smirked. "Within thirty seconds after we met. Pretending you didn't recognize me? _Really? _PANDRA has advertised._" _

That made him blush.

Stroking his back soothingly, Hyoubu told him that, "I've been suppressing my presentation since I was a teenager. An omega would never have been allowed in combat in those days, and the Americans were bombing civilians." From his file, Major Hyoubu Kyousuke held the world record for most aircraft downed. Not that fighter pilots acknowledged it, when he was an esper. "Holding off the transition made my body feel… wrong. It was a reminder that there was no _point _in presenting, not after the alpha I loved called me a monster and triple-tapped me. I didn't realize just how much it was bothering me to still be a beta until I woke up after that night in the punishment cell and it wasn't bothering me anymore."

That was the other reason for Hyoubu to hate him, but he didn't hate him for making him present either? "You're going to hate me after the hormones wear off," he said, feeling lost.

"Why?" Hyoubu glared. "Because no one else has ever let you this close? Because those damn normals..." They he paused, eyes widening. "I should have realized," he said gently. "You must not be used to this much physical contact. I'm sorry if I've been making you uncomfortable."

He started to pull away and Andy grabbed him. "No!" he said, ready to beg. "It's, I can't believe how good it is."

"That's the normal reaction to a bonding." Hyoubu smirked, but it was softened by the affection in his eyes, reminding Andy of how he'd looked at Yugiri. "All those fights… you're not the first esper to have skin hunger because of _normal_s._" _He pressed close again.

Andy saw movement out of the corner of his eye and clutched Hyoubu to him as he whirled protectively to see two trays floated closer until they were set down on the edge of the nest. "It's just what I could grab out of the kitchen," Hyoubu said apologetically as a knife cut off a morsel of cheese. He picked it up with his actual hands and held it to Andy's lips.

Knowing he was blushing, Andy's lips parted and closed again. Regretfully, he let Hyoubu's fingers escape his mouth. He was fed a bite of some kind of cured meat and another kind of cheese before it occurred to him that… that he could… Bringing his fingers to someone's mouth seemed like the kind of thing he'd get yelled at for, people were desperate for him to stay _away_ but Hyoubu was curled up against him, Hyoubu kept _willingly _bringing his fingers to Andy's mouth. He wanted to feed Hyoubu too, the idea more appealing the more he thought about it, but the idea that he might be allowed to made him swallow at the feeling of awe and wonder that filled him. "Can I?" he still asked, but with hope.

Hyoubu quickly suppressed his anger seeing Andy's flinch. He gave him an apologetic look and said, "I was hoping you would. I'm not angry at you."

He was angry at normals. For being the reason Andy was like this. "I hate espers too."

"Yes, they rejected you too, and a child like you was in no shape to make the distinction between avoiding you out of cruelty and because they were other children and being near you hurt them." There was that sympathy again.

Had he reminded Hyoubu that he hated espers trying to see if Hyoubu would push him away? Yes. Was he _trying _to screw this up for himself?

Maybe. It was new, and strange, and…

'_Get a grip_,' he told himself, frowning with determination and needing to actually pick up the knife to cut a bit of the cheese he'd liked better out of the two he'd tried so far.

That flicker of rage… Major Hyoubu Kyousuke was a terrorist and Andy Hinomiya realized that the majority of himself did not give a shit. Was so desperate for someone, _anyone _to hold him, to love him, to not push him away that he'd take the worst human on the planet.

'_Pathetic_,' he thought, and it sapped the pleasure out of Hyoubu moving his mouth closer (closer! To Andy!) to take the morsel, licking at his fingers.

Hyoubu could clearly see that in his face because he frowned and pulled Andy towards him again, stroked his back and started to purr, an omega's lighter tone, the frequencies that promoted healing. "I can purr for my children now," he realized, and snuggled against Andy.

Then he nosed at Andy's neck, rubbing his cheeks against his scent glands.

Someone was. Deliberately! Getting Andy's scent on them! No one had ever smelled like him, like _family, _not since he was too young to remember!

And he, he smelled like Hyoubu, he realized. Both their scents hung heavy in the air, like this was _their _room, when he'd always had a single because the espers would rather press themselves into a corner of the room than even share a _bunk _bed with him.

_Anything. _He would do anything for Hyoubu. _Anything_. He was Hyoubu's now, and it made wetness grow in the corners of his eyes.

Until Hyoubu inevitably sent him away. Because even his family hadn't wanted him. No one ever wanted him.

He just wanted.

"It's alright," Hyoubu said soothingly, rubbing his back again. "Let it out." He purred, and stroked, and Andy would _die for him_.

Would rather die than lose him, lose this.

"We'll spend today just the two of us, and tomorrow you can meet my children. They're going to love you. We're all family here," Hyoubu promised him, and it was too good to be true, why was his mate _lying _to him.

It made Andy sob now, and Hyoubu sang in a language Andy had learned to feel closer to a family that hadn't wanted him.

"Nennen korori yo, Okorori yo…"


	2. Chapter 2

How was a terrorist so warm and so gentle? Hyoubu sang lullaby after lullaby in language after language, many that Andy couldn't even identify. Had he learned one for every kid he took in, so they would have something of the home they had lost?

It was everything he'd read about, that kids in books had and he and the others in the orphanage didn't, because they were espers and no one wanted them.

Touched and held and sung to and purred at in hopes he would heal: he felt _wanted _and he didn't know what to do with it. His arms shook with a need to do _something_, and Hyoubu guided his head to his neck, where he found his lips pressed to the mating bite. It had already healed over, when Hyoubu had such a healing factor with Andy's powers sealed, but he could feel the scar under his lips. He pressed them against it, traced it, opened his mouth to nibble and suck.

Hyoubu's breath hitched and his neck tilted to the side, giving Andy more access. He felt his omega begin to harden against his thigh, where they were pressed together, skin to skin except for the towel that now felt like the stupidest idea ever. He'd thought he was going to die, what, had he wanted Hyoubu to hate him slightly less when he should have wallowed in the feel of skin against skin and died happy?

He removed one hand from where it was wrapped around Hyoubu (keeping him from getting away, from pushing Andy away) and started to undo the towel and slide it from around him. He could smell Hyoubu's arousal: someone _wanted _him.

"Ah," Hyoubu said quickly, "Why don't you keep that on."

Then his mate's cock softened: huh? Right, the amount of control he must have over his body to keep a presentation on hold for decades must make that a cinch, but more importantly: "You don't want me," Andy knew, feeling more fierce than hurt, glaring up at the omega that couldn't be his. The old anger felt familiar, felt safe. This was why he hated espers. He wouldn't long for them to touch him if he hated them.

"I do," Hyoubu promised. "I've wanted a bond for so long." Old longing in his voice. "But you're a quarter my age, and you're in a vulnerable place now. I _don't _take advantage."

"Take advantage of what? I'm in my twenties, I'm an adult no matter how old you are." What was he doing, picking a fight with the most dangerous man on the planet? But a fight he knew what to do with, fights he liked. "You don't get to decide I'm a child. Where were you when I was a child?" he said, and felt his heart clench. Where was Hyoubu? Andy would have _killed _to have this as a child, would have joined PANDRA and killed people in a heartbeat, just to be _held _like this.

Hyoubu bowed his head. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be _sorry_, just don't push me away." Like everyone else. Please, he thought, clinging to Hyoubu. Please don't.

"I won't," Hyoubu promised, running his fingers through Andy's hair.

He needed him now, needed to be sure this was real. "Can I touch you?" Andy asked, feeling his heart break a little expecting a no, because it was always a no until he'd stopped asking.

"I am your omega. You can do what you want with my body."

"…Okay, yeah, you are old." Old-fashioned Japanese, huh. Feeling like Hyoubu might have just given in because he felt he owed a bonded alpha sex or something made Andy ask, "Is it really alright? I'm not okay with you deciding I'm a child even though I'm a grown man, but you can say no." Even though he wanted to beg Hyoubu: please, _please _don't.

Hyoubu hummed, petting his hair. "Right now sleeping with an alpha who isn't him feels like the biggest possible 'fuck you' to Saotome, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't relish the thought."

Saotome? That must be the alpha he was in love with, the one who shot him and gave him those bullet scars.

Suddenly Andy felt horribly petty: he knew how much it hurt to be pushed away because of what you were, and for someone to give you _bullet scars _when what you wanted from them was a mating bite… His omega was in pain, he had to soothe those wounds somehow, he thought, and bent his head to Hyoubu's chest to nibble. "I could bite them off." The surface scars at least: the damage had to go much deeper into the flesh. But he could replace at least the surface scar with one from an alpha's bite, his mate's bite.

Hyoubu shuddered under him. "_Eight million kami," _he whispered, voice choked with longing.

Andy bit, and bit, and bit again at his mate's forehead. Sharp alpha teeth removed oval divots of flesh, tangs of blood filling the air and fading as the wounds instantly scarred over. Hyoubu snapped his fingers and a mirror appeared in his hands: he pushed his bangs up with his other hand and looked at the one on his forehead first, at the smooth scar tissue.

Then he lunged at Andy, kissing him, which put Andy in kind of a difficult position. He couldn't part his lips for that demanding tongue when there were _chunks of skin in his mouth. _Fortunately Hyoubu pulled back when Andy didn't respond to his kiss and Andy was able to spit them out into his palm. Hyoubu made them vanish, hopefully into a wastebasket or something.

"You erased his mark on me," Hyoubu said with the same kind of wonder Andy felt every time it started to sink in that Hyoubu was _touching him_. Clinging to him, right now.

Damn right he had, Andy's instincts said. Another alpha daring to mark _his _omega: Andy was going to beat the shit out of him and enjoy it even more than he always enjoyed a fight. The part of him that thought that way clashed with the part of him that still insisted Hyoubu being his made no sense? Had water started to run uphill, seriously what the fuck?

"Andy," Hyoubu breathed, nuzzling at his neck.

"Kyou… suke?" Was that alright?

A purr answered him. "I'm so open and wet for you," Kyousuke said in obvious invitation, pressing his lips to Andy's again. This time he opened his mouth for his mate as the invitation sank in. He could get even closer to Hyoubu, to Kyousuke, press into that delicious heat. Someone _wanted _to let Andy touch. Kyousuke was pregnant, and they'd said pregnancy did things to omega hormones in sex ed. Kyousuke might even _demand _that Andy touch him, he thought, and shuddered as he pressed into Kyousuke's body, feeling the easy slide. Feeling welcomed.

Kyousuke looked gentle and delicate, there in his arms. Ethereal, except for how he felt so solid and real around him. Except the fact it was too good to be true gave the whole thing a sense of unreality… He tried to forget those thoughts in the act of thrusting, lose himself in Kyousuke's body. (Because how long could this last…)

* * *

PANDRA had a chef, apparently.

"It's a cruise ship, of course we have a chef," was what Kyousuke had said about it.

So Kyousuke sent in their orders via telepathy and teleported the food into the room when it was ready.

"Milk?" Andy asked.

"I have to set a good example for the kids, otherwise they want soda." Kyousuke took a drink and got a tiny milk moustache.

Andy could reach out to wipe it off his face and Kyousuke pressed forward a bit to meet his hand instead of flinching back and it reminded him again that he was in love with this man.

He was ridiculously happy whenever he stopped freaking out about the fact the universe had clearly gone wrong somewhere, things like this did not happen to Andy Hinomiya. Maybe the terrorist thing balanced it out? Living on a cruise ship with room service was a pretty comfortable way of being on the run, though, he thought as Kyousuke fed him. Like, what percentage of Kyousuke's terrorist acts happened because someone fucked with one of his kids? Everyone knew omegas got violent if you threatened their children and he didn't have an alpha to support them and cruise ships had to be expensive. Shit, yeah, Andy was definitely going to have to become a criminal. Or maybe Kyousuke was right and he could make money as a bodyguard? Kyousuke could teleport him so he could commute?

He was an alpha, so if he didn't pull his weight he'd be a pathetic excuse for an alpha and Kyousuke might dump him.

…Kyousuke wouldn't kick him out in that case, would he? He'd be one of the children. He'd still be held, and allowed in the nest, he thought, and maybe shivered a little as the fear went away.

He wanted to try to hold on to his mate, though. Even if it felt just impossible that he would get to keep something like this.

* * *

"If we take too long Yoh will get worried and break down the door and I don't want to scar my children for life," Kyousuke said, adjusting Andy's tie. Because apparently PANDRA had a tailor, from whom Kyousuke ordinarily ordered nothing but school uniforms. "The normals have already done that. We're still a day early for the end of a normal heat," if Kyousuke hadn't made biology his bitch, "So there shouldn't be a problem."

"Is there anything I should do, or not do…" Andy knew he looked nervous.

Kyousuke leaned up to kiss his cheek and tapped the limiter. "Andy, espers didn't dislike you because you're not a likeable person, they disliked you because they were in pain." So there was no reason for Kyousuke's children to dislike Andy. "And it's been two days, you're _covered _in my scent." Kyousuke sounded a little gloating, as though Andy was something that other people wanted and couldn't have because he was Kyousuke's. "You're already family, as my bonded."

Before Andy could reply Kyousuke took his hand, snapped his fingers and they appeared by a pool. "Major!" several voices cried out in joy. Children started clambering and flying out of the pool, a woman in a swimsuit teleported herself up off a lounge chair, and a yellow flying squirrel slammed into Hyoubu's face.

"Major, I'm so glad!" Andy heard in his head. "You finally got over your Lolita Complex!"

Kyousuke grabbed it by the tail and ripped it off his face. "Don't say your misleading bullshit in front of my alpha!" he yelled as he tossed the squirrel into the distance.

The kids reached them and ignored Andy. Or maybe what they were doing was the opposite of ignoring him? They wanted to crowd around the Major, so they were crowding around Andy too, pushing and jostling against him and grabbing at his clothes too. They had to be espers, but they were okay with being near him? His hand went to the limiter around his neck. It really… just a tiny little thing made all this difference…

"Everyone, it's time to introduce you to our new alpha." Kyousuke picked up a child and hugged her, rubbed his cheeks against hers, then held out the child to Andy. After a second Andy took her, and she rubbed her dark-skinned cheeks against his. At least someone seemed to know what they were doing. "I'm Amana!" she said.

"I'm Andy," he introduced himself.

"I can fly! What do you do?"

"I give people headaches."

She giggled. "Like big brother Yoh?"

"Why you little!" A young man grabbed Amana out of his arms and started to tickle her. She made her escape into the air, laughing, and he grred and made a show of chasing her.

"This is Little Yoh, Yosef," Kyousuke told him, holding out another child to him. Andy took the child and looked at Kyousuke for guidance. "When children are introduced to alpha and omega family members, they need to learn their scents so they know who it's safe to go to."

And Andy wouldn't have known that because he hadn't had a family.

Yosef rubbed cheeks with him and then patted his head. "You have a family now," the child told him, looking at him with serious dark brown eyes, then jumped down out of Andy's hold, barely waiting a second for the other kids to see what he was doing and make room for him to land.

A psychometer? Had he gotten away before Andy could push him away, because that was how people normally reacted to having their mind read?

The children were handed to him already smelling like Kyousuke, like his bonded. Like family? He should find a book or something: if people were actually wanting to be around him he didn't want to hurt the kids' feelings.

The young man came in for a landing with Amana sitting on his shoulders. "I told them you were okay! Dragging a boytoy off to his bedroom is totally something the old man would do! At least it's not the Queen. Magi said that," he added a fraction of a second later.

"Stop lying!" Kyousuke said, aggravated, and shook his fist at the young man. "And be more polite to your new alpha. Yoh, this is Andy Hinomiya, my bonded. Andy, this is Yoh," he waved at the young man.

Yoh was one of PANDRA's field agents, according to his briefing. So was the young woman in the swimsuit, Momiji. "I'll go get Magi," she said when she saw Andy looking at her. Was there a reason she looked a little nervous?

"Momiji," Kyousuke said, and held out his arms.

With a glance at Andy she waded through the kids and let Kyousuke embrace her. Kyousuke turned to Andy. "This is my daughter, Momiji," he said with a trace of seriousness in his voice, as though he was telling Andy to remember this.

Then Andy breathed in and oh. Momiji was an alpha. An alpha with his omega's scent on her. Daughter, yes, daughter, he told himself. Don't get jealous and aggressive in front of kids.

He wanted these people to like him.

People had never liked him before, that wasn't how it worked, but Kyousuke wanted them to like him and he didn't want to fuck it up for Kyousuke.

Momiji took a careful step forward and he managed to paste on a smile and hug her, since that seemed to be how this went. As soon as his cheek touched hers his heart rate dropped back down to normal. Oh, that made sense. Alpha with his omega's scent on her: rival. Alpha with his omega's scent and _his_ scent on her: mutual family. Daughter. Even though she might even be older than him. "It's nice to meet you," Andy said.

She grinned in relief and said, "I'll go get Magi!"

"Hello Yugiri." Kyousuke picked her up. "No one's taught you how to swim yet?" He must be asking because she was in an adorable little dress instead of a swimsuit.

She shook her head.

He frowned. "That's not safe, we'll have to fix that as soon as Andy is introduced to everyone. Kids can get hurt if they're around pools and don't know how to swim."

"Hello," Yugiri said shyly when she was handed to Andy.

"Hey." 'Did they hurt you?' he wanted to ask, but if they had he didn't want to remind her. "Swimming is a lot of fun," he told her instead, and when he put her down he saw Kyousuke gesturing for her to come over to his side as he picked up the next child. Seeing how he kept her close made Andy's chest feel warm. An omega protecting children. His omega.

"How many kids do you even have?" he asked Kyousuke.

"All the ones I could rescue." Shit, now he'd made his omega look sad. He was so not qualified for this stuff, he had no idea how to deal with people. Why had they sent him on an undercover mission again?

Right, to get rid of him.

"Major," a man said, approaching. He had to be Magi, the number two of PANDRA. "If you're recovered there's paperwork that needs to be done."

Kyousuke hovered off the ground to embrace him. "Of course Magi," he said indulgently. "Bring it by my – our rooms by this evening."

Magi looked startled but quickly recovered and Yoh sputtered. "Damn, Hinomiya, you got him in that good a mood? How good _are _you in bed!"

"Yoh…" Kyousuke said slowly and dangerously and he advanced on him after pushing Magi in Hinomiya's direction.

Rubbing cheeks seemed endlessly dignified when Magi did it. He was an unmated omega – not that Hinomiya was interested in him! Alphas bragged in the schoolyard about harems, but if Hinomiya hadn't known better than to hope, he would have wanted a mate bond instead of a harem, someone who would be by his side ever night instead of a rotation of people. And mating someone and then trying to mate their children, that was just a disgusting concept. There was something solid, caring and warm about Magi that he honestly would have ignored before he became bonded to Kyousuke, because why torment himself with what he couldn't have.

He followed Magi's gaze to where Kyousuke was in a play-fight with Yoh – beta males often play-fought to bond, and until Andy happened to him Kyousuke had been physically a beta, right. It was good that causing Kyousuke to present hadn't screwed up his dynamic with Yoh, even if normally betas were socialized not to fight with omegas.

"Major," Magi said, walking over to where Kyousuke and Yoh were pulling on each other's hair. "Should I gather the rest of the organization together?"

"Tomorrow," Kyousuke corrected him, teleporting back to Andy's side and wrapping an arm around him. "Andy isn't used to this many people: I think those on board the Catastrophe are enough for today. But we have a serious problem."

"What is it, Major?" Magi asked, all business.

"My nest isn't large enough." Kyousuke snapped his fingers. "Everyone," he said in the silence with everyone's voices muffled. "I need at least one soft thing from each of you. Three days from now, in the throne room, PANDRA will be holding a sleepover!" The pool deck echoed with cheers.


End file.
